Howdy,
On Fri, 4 Jun 1999, Engstrom wrote:
> 1) How many of you that have a choice left foot brake (AM, CM, FM - I
> guess you HAVE to) ?
> 2) What kind of cars do you drive?
I do in my Neon. I really like being able to get on the gas or the brake
whenever I want to... but more on that in a minute.
> 3) For those of you who left foot brake, is it common to use a little braking
> with the left foot to control speed in the middle and end of a turn?
> 4) For those of you who left foot brake, is it common to use both brake and
> throttle modulation in a slalom?
I don't do either of these and don't agree with the premise. In my newbie
opinion, if you're using the brake in a non-decreasing radius corner after
you've finished trail braking in, then you screwed up. Once you start
getting back on the gas, you should be able to progressively feed it in
until you're on the straight. Perhaps if your car can't progressively
feed in acceleration using the brake to control it would make sense, but
I'd wanna see it to really believe it.
In a slalom, If I can get a rythm then I'm constant throttle or
accelerating. I havne't ever had enought time to accelerate / decelerate
per cone in a slalom, but maybe that's just 'cause I have'n't run into the
right slalom yet.
The two biggest problems I faced / face with left foot braking is learning
to feel with my left foot and overbraking. Learning to feel you fix with
seat time (McKamey and street practice). Overbraking you fix with mental
stuff (and in my case Sam Strano yelling at me to quit being a wus... :-).
The problem is that its easier to overbrake left foot braking than it is
right footing, because there's no built in time delay. So far, I'm having
some success at reprogramming my head to not brake too much, but to be
honest I think I could go just as fast right foot braking. Hopefully that
won't be the case in the future.
The other problem is needing to downshift. I don't have a huge problem
switching back to right foot heel & toe when i've gotta downshift, but its
not the easiest thing in the world and it seems like some people can't
overcome it.
So, in summary, I think left foot braking can be a good thing in terms of
extracting that last tiny bit, but that overall not much would change if
it was banished somehow. Its usefulness is way overrated in my newbie
opinion, but I do prefer it.
Mark
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